


cling on steadfastly

by hoper_dreamer



Category: Oliver Twist - All Media Types, Oliver! - Bart
Genre: Abuse, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Character Study, F/M, Prostitution, Train of Thought, probably not dickens-compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 18:53:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11087820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hoper_dreamer/pseuds/hoper_dreamer
Summary: "I was out on the streets for you when I was a child half his age, and I've been in the same trade, the same service for fifteen years since, and don't you forget it!"a brief summary of a fine life.





	cling on steadfastly

**Author's Note:**

> -ok so I got to play nancy in my spring musical and I got really into the character. I was awake at like midnight writing this. it's totally unedited by anyone so I hope it doesn't suck  
> -I've not read the original novel so all of this is based off of Lionel Bart's Oliver! and my late-night research of Victorian prostitution so if anything is off from Nancy's, Sykes's, or Fagin's characters in Oliver Twist #whoops  
> -Side note: Nancy's romanticization of her relationship with bill is not something I advocate for at all; she is a victim of abuse, and that can warp perceptions and lead to the romanticization of abuse found in nancy in the play (see: as long as he needs me). I portray this in my fic but definitely don't want to portray it as romanticized.  
> -none of the things I tagged for warnings are explicitly in the fic I just put them there bc i don't want to trigger anyone if they've been through something like that  
> -this is probably enough author's notes pls enjoy my sad-ass fic about a sad-ass prosititute I just want to protect

Nancy was eight when she got picked up by Fagin. He shoved her long blonde hair in a cap and gave her a swallow of gin and told her to pick a pocket and she loved it. He gave her a shilling her first day (he was less stingy with his cash then - only slightly.) She kept it with her for years, in the pocket of her dress. Her lucky shilling, she thought. She threw it in the gutter the day she stole Oliver.

She was thirteen the first day she noticed men looking at her. Her breasts had grown and her figure had begun to curve, and after she picked a man's pocket and sauntered past him he grabbed her bottom and leered. One day Fagin took her newsboy cap off her head and brushed her hair and sent her to a woman named Maude to teach her how to whore. She was fucked the first time when she was fourteen, and the next day she drank half a bottle of gin to feel whole again.

She was seventeen the day she met Bill Sykes. He came around Fagin's den and stole gin and drank in the Three Cripples and spoke quiet but his voice filled the room. She'd never been stole from before, but she didn't notice him picking her lucky shilling from her pocket until he waved it in front of her face. He smiled crookedly and said his name and there wasn't much else Nancy could do. A year later he was her Bill and she was his Nancy and they had their own corner in Fagin's den and pocketsful of shillings. She still whored and he still thieved and their coffers were never empty. He fucked her and she didn't feel empty, didn't need gin to fill herself up. Life had never been finer.

She was twenty the first time he hit her. He'd had too much gin and she didn't want to hand over her pay from a rich sailor she'd bedded without getting her fair share. A flash in his eyes and a crack on her cheek and she was on the floor and he was out the door with her money in his pocket. _It was just this once_ , he promised her later, when he returned with a ripe strawberry as an olive branch. Once turned into twice turned into ten times turned into so many times Nancy could count the times like she could count the bruises. But he needed her and she must stay strong and so she did. Fagin took to warning her when Bill was in the den. Maude showed her how to cover black eyes. She found gin again.

She was twenty-three when she died. It was the year she found Bet and told her to keep away from Sykes and men like him because they'd take a lonely girl and hold her close and fill her up until she couldn't go no more without him. It had been two years since she'd last cried, she wouldn't dare. Life was fine, if she took her pleasures where she could. It was the year she found Oliver Twist and told him to be careful and the year she danced with Dodger. It was the year she felt torn in two. Bill needed her. Oliver needed her. Bill needed her. Oliver needed her. It was the first time she'd stepped into a house as nice as Brownlow's and didn't take off her clothes. She wouldn't ever turn on him, not her Bill, but she had to save Oliver from a _fine life_ like hers. She couldn't let the sweet boy become her Bill. Couldn't see him make a girl feel like Bill made her feel, all empty and full at once. She couldn't turn on him. She loved him and he was her Bill and she was his Nancy and then she was on London Bridge and was under his cudgel with her eyes staring into his and then they stared no more.

**Author's Note:**

> pls leave a comment if you liked it I live for validation  
> plus there's like seven fics in the whole oliver! tag so


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